After the success on Flake 'n Bake, I had Mike come out to continue my trad climbing lessons. We climbed Revenge of the Elderly and ran into a couple work friends on the route next to us! Slab sport on the 1st pitch, which made me a little nervous. Then a little crack work to a cave/bridge on the 2nd, followed by an interesting stretch where I practiced placing nuts and cams, then running out of slings, then spaciously placing pro and finally to the top!

Sunday: Soccer game with lovelace. Had a couple shots not on goal and it ended up being a 1-1 tie even though we were clearly the stronger team.

Monday: Sore from soccer, but broke out the Roubaix for the commute to work and added the 5 mile loop out to South Gate on my return ride. The aerobars are fun and fast, but slightly uncomfortable and in the high winds pretty dangerous. More training to come with these!

Weds: Tried to run some, but was really flat and could only get about 2 miles in.

Thurs: Kickball game with St. Mary's and then Cheesy Climbing Movie night at Leigh and Justin's. We watched the descent and I had glimpses of evil creatures when I got back to the house.

Fri: 9/80 gardening all day. 2 trips to Ace Hardware eventually led to "repaired" front and back drip systems. I finished setting up the garden beds, planted everything, and gave a good watering to all my thirsty seeds. Ran 4.2 Miles around the neighborhood and hit to pool for another mile.

Led a couple laps up flake n' bake (5.5) in Lower La Cueva Canyon to break in my trad rack. I appreciate Mike and Tom's help in providing some pointers for a beginner. It took a while, but no dramas aside from organizing the double ropes while tandem belaying two partners and needing to borrow a headlamp for the 2nd climb and hike out.

Went up to Taos Friday night with Briana and Kaycie. Took about an hour to get through Espanola so we hiked up to the Yurt in the dark. We all switched into and out of our ski gear about a dozen times before the snow finally stuck around for the final mile. Even then Kaycie had a rough time of it on XC skis because it was icy. We made it to the yurt in record (slow) time of 3 hours, but had a killer pasta dinner and then passed out.

Or, rather, they should have. There was thin cover everywhere, and no cover on the south-facing slopes. The thin slushy catwalk near the Orient Express melted out the 2nd day so no one could get to Pete's Bowl. Still made the most of it.

A very warm ice climbing trip with Leigh, Mike and Tom. Had a great time trying out the new gear: cobras worked great on the ice - not so well on the rock. (Thin cover in the New Funtier at this time of year.) The baruntses rubbed a bit, but I need to work them in before Rainier anyway. Lead a short wall-at, as Mike says, a 4th grade level-but pulled a couple clean big wall ascents in the Alcove in the pouring ice melt.

Mike, Tom and I headed out on Friday night at 8pm in the dark for a lap up on Sandia Ski Area. The night was still and warm (35 F), but the daytime temperatures left snow conditions terrible - 75 deg days = ice. We still made it up in about 40 minutes and then traversed to the Ellis Trail and bushwhacked to the Crest Trail through the forest. It's cool to watch your friends headlamps meandering through the snowy, nightscape. Not a cloud in the sky so when we hit the ridge and saw the city lights plus all the stars, I had to stop for a little bit to take it all in. Patchy snow up to the cabin wasn't too bad on the way up, and I drank a Guinness (St. Patty's Eve!) on the roof of the cabin while we watched the final tram head down for the night at 10:30pm. The small, bright light arced through the mountains on it's way back to civilization in the calm night. Mike pulled out the starmap app and we checked out mars, jupiter, and venus. Skiing down left a lot to be desired. This will be my last ski on Sandia for the season! We worked our way now the ice through weird deep patches in the trees to a clearing where the ice/snow mix left a maze of skiable patches of choppy ice. I fell a couple times but managed to make it through the clearing, only walking on the grass once. The others weren't so lucky. We didn't skin up for the trail back to the ski area, but rather tried to keep our speed up along the icy trail. A little scary at higher speeds through the dense trees because I was leading by ~120 W headlamp. A couple herringbones later, and we caught a line down skier's left in the resort. The ice layer was chopped up halfway down by a groomer to everyone's delight, but Mike still convinced me to ski a line of iced up moguls for no reason. I smirked when I ran it clean and he crashed three times on the way down. Split boarders...think they know everything. I'm also guessing this is how he ended the day with 2 bent poles. For Tom's first season, he did awesome! Very impressed with his progress. Back at the car at 11:35pm. Great time guys!

Every 5 years members of the Mountain Rescue Association must accredit with the MRA in 5 areas: search, high angle technical rescue, low angle technical rescue, avalanche, and winter technical. We just completed ours this weekend!! Stressful but rewarding!